Winner of the Best New Director award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Benedikt Erlingssonâs critically acclaimed debut feature OF HORSES AND MEN is a darkly comic country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human. Set in the stunning Icelandic countryside, love, death and sex become interlaced in this playful, affectionate yet unflinching portrait of a remote valley community as seen from the horsesâ perspective. Unique and highly entertaining, OF HORSES AND MEN was Icelandâs official submission for the 2014 Oscars and won in six categories at the 2014 Edda Awards (the Icelandic Film and Television Academy), including Director of the Year, Screenplay of the Year and Best Film.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

A quite stunning film set amongst a horse breeding community in Iceland. Anyone expecting a romanticised and sanitised story about people and animals will be surprised, though. The film is episodic, with the relationship between the events and characters emerging only through the film, humour mixes with tragedy, and the squeamish have to wait for the end for reassurance that the film was made by horse lovers and no horses were harmed. That the actors and crew were all experienced in working with horses is very clear from the start, and, yes, they do speak Icelandic or in one case Swedish, though the subtitling is well done. A film by adults, for adults.

What at first seems like a lot of horsing around makes way for some beautifully dark and poignant set pieces executed delicately with less emphasis on dialogue than you may expect. Starting off on a trot, the film eventually gallops as the 'chapters' cross paths and the stories start to make sense as a moving fresco and an excellent representation of the themes in the very title of the film - one of few films these days whose title is very literal, and therefore honest.

Found myself smirking and cringing at the same time at several moments in the film which is a delightful combination that works so well and is most representative of the Icelandic sense of humour. I loved the exploration of the beautifully windswept landscape, as well as the subtlety to subjects of outside interaction - both tourism and trading. Comically morbid at points - the funeral scenes, in which the ceremony is used as some kind of flirting ritual by some of the characters. Clever in its use of repetitive imagery - punctuated with shots of the reflection in a horses eye, used as an establishing shot and somewhat foreshadowing the scene about to unfold.

A very clever little film, with nothing much profound to say other than a love for a particularly abundant animal in Iceland, but a great exercise in both minimalism and awkward humour. An enticing ride and one I'm glad I took.

A strange film, i liked it but my wife who was the prime mover in buying this film had reservations. She thought it would be more documentary than what we viewed. The horses in it were wonderful, but the men left much to be desired. And yes, i realise they were characters in a film narrative, but i think i would have preferred the company of the wonderful and beautiful horses to any of the men portrayed. But maybe the harsh and at times beautiful landscape and the difficulty of scraping a living in such a harsh environment molded them as harsh and brittle.

An engrossing movie even for non-horse people and apparently an insight into a mysterious country. No plot in the conventional sense but as a slice of exotic life it's fascinating. However - some people have been getting exercised over subtitles in recent reviews so be warned - some parts of the film have none.

The film is beautifully filmed. The scenery is stunning and the interaction between animal and human is captured in a wonderful way. Most of the dialogue is done without words, those of you afraid of subtitles need not worry, there are very few of those. The film consist of a compilation of stories set in a remote village on Iceland, and they are told through the eyes of the horses. Important to note, most actors play themselves, these are horse people on Iceland and you will see some impressing horsemanship.

A beautifully shot film of horses and Iceland (and people as well). The film premise is to tell rural stories in the rugged wilderness of Iceland's 'outback'. from the horse's perspective. Minimal dialogue - the landscape outline the stories. Not by any means a disneyfied' film but if you like your international cinema then you may love this - I did. PS Some scenes will be upsetting for children even thought the filmmakers claim no horses were harmed in the making of this film.

As kids in Holland we were brought up with Icelandic ponies. Our aunt Heidi had a stud in the centre of Holland where we helped out every holiday from boarding school as our parents served the country abroad, so we couldn't go home. What we learnt was that there are only a few types of horses that do this gait called the 'tolt', its high stepping and going at a rate faster than a canter...in this way these ponies can race over the most rough, boggy, stony terrain easily. The title should have been Of Ponies And Men.This is the first time that Ive seen what Iceland is like and it reminds me so much of the very rural Highlands of Scotland, the countryside and also the people. I just hadn't realised, and suppose that culture of sniffing something and drinking hard liquor is a normal thing to do every day, even in Scotland? I've never sniffed that white powder, whatever its called, so wouldn't know.The film is showing a very raw side of life, quick tempers flair up and things than happen that the main character is then so sorry about..Great film. I rented it online, but should have bought it to watch again. I now only had 36 hrs, I believe to watch it and I don't think that was made clear to me!